The present invention relates to a compressor.
A compressor disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-235913 is publicly known. The compressor has a valve base plate arranged between a suction chamber and a compression chamber. The valve base plate has a suction port, which extends through the valve base plate and allows communication between the suction chamber and the compression chamber. The suction port is selectively opened and closed by a suction reed valve, which is arranged in the suction chamber.
The suction reed valve is elastically deformable and formed using a plate material having front and back surfaces, which extend parallel to each other when in a normal state. The suction reed valve has a fixing portion fixed to the valve base plate, a base portion that extends longitudinally from the fixing portion and can be lifted from the valve base plate, and a valve portion that extends from the base portion toward the distal longitudinal end to selectively open and close the suction port.
The valve base plate is arranged in the suction chamber and has a fixing surface. The fixing portion is fixed to the fixing surface through contact between a back surface of the fixing portion and the fixing surface. The valve base plate includes a sealing surface, which is flush with the fixing surface and capable of contacting a back surface of the valve portion in an annular manner at a position around the suction port. The valve base plate also has an annular groove, which is located on the outer side of the sealing surface in a manner recessed with respect to the fixing surface and arranged around the full circumference of the suction port.
In this type of compressor, as the deformation amount, which is the lift amount, of the suction reed valve at the time of suction becomes smaller, the resistance between the reed valve and the valve base plate becomes greater. This hampers smooth gas flow, thus causing power loss.
To conserve energy, the conventional compressor is demanded to promote suppression of such power loss.
Also, to prevent damage to the suction reed valve, the durability of the compressor is demanded to improve.